Ready or Not~~ Indiana Here I Come!

                                                                        May 31, 2013

Hey!!

So to answer a few questions from everyone, I got super lucky and my entire district is going to Indiana, in fact, almost my entire zone is!! So there will be a lot of us new bees. It is nice to know that I will fly with friends and that hopefully out in Indiana when we do zone conference I will see some familiar faces :) My district has been working really hard this past week to keep the challenge from our branch president to keep our classroom sacred. This makes it a way better learning environment. We often take breaks to talk in the hall and as Elder Craven likes to say "get our wiggles out". Sometimes Sister Blacker (my companion) will say something really super funny to me (or vice versa) and we have to leave the class room because of our laughter. In doing so we are following the other piece of advice from my branch president to enjoy to the end (not endure, but enjoy). Laughing does make the time go a lot faster during class. I am really glad I didn’t get a boring companion. I would probably be going nuts.... but anyways Sister Blacker ROCKS!!!

 

Me and my companion Sister Blacker. 

The MTC has the strangest time warp. The days are so long and we are so exhausted mentally by the end, but it seems like I just got here yesterday. What everyone keeps telling me is that days are super long, but the weeks fly by. Yesterday was In-Field Training. This made me super excited to actually get to Indiana, but nervous at the same time. Right when I think I am getting the hang of the lessons and such, I realize that there is SO MUCH MORE!!! (experiencing a little bit of fear.. well fear of the unknown). It's crazy! Most of it is kind of common sense stuff- like work with ward members and such, but still there is a lot that didn’t even cross my mind.  I really only have two days of class left, Friday and Monday, because my flight is at 7am on Tuesday. So ready or not, Indiana here I come!!  This past week, I have come to understand (as well as make up) my role as sister training leader. Last night I trained the new sister training leader as well as presented to the new districts in our zone. It was kind of fun, a good change of pace. We were able to answer a lot of the new Elders and Sisters questions. It is crazy to consider how far I have come in just a week!! I mean now I know (mostly pretend I know) what I am doing.

Me and the Sisters from my district.

Me and the Elders from my district. 

Teaching has gotten a lot better. It was unsure at first what exactly it was suppose to be like. I think that I am really coming to better understand the Spirit better. Sister Blacker and I have been able to more successfully teach our progressing investigator. Sometimes it is hard to really put full effort in when I know that it isn’t really real, but I have come to understand that the Spirit is real. As long as I am willing to listen and I do all that I can to invite, the Spirit will be there to teach. I mean it might not be teaching the investigator, but it sure will be teaching me!! The spirit was so strong in a lesson wite our TRC investigator (Hely) that by the end we were all in tears (yes I know cry baby....). Last week my branch president promised that if we worked hard and were obedient that our testimony would grow as much as it had since we were baptized. It is crazy to look back at who I was a week ago and see the difference. I definitaly have a long way to go, but I know that my understanding and testimony of this gospel is SO much stronger already.

I have been trying to focus this week on having a positive attitude. When I come out of lessons, it is easy for me to recognize right away what I need to work on. This sometimes can be discouraging because I focus on the bad, and not what I am doing well. Sister Blacker and I, once we realized we were both doing this, decided to try to focus on the good and then make a plan on how to improve the bad. I know and I love the scriptures, but I have a hard time remembering in the moment what scriptures to share. Scripture mastery has been a blessing. I am grateful that I have an entire hour to spend on personal study, because it doesn’t just have to be Preach My Gospel, but I have spent a lot of time in the Book of Mormon. I started it again and this seems to be the time that the Book of Mormon has been the most different from before. Knowing the stories has made it easy to focus on Christ and how the doctrine can apply to my life as well as future investigators. Oh and my entire district thinks I am "spiritually insightful" or something like that...... not really sure what this means and I don’t really think its true, but I guess I will take the compliment.. hahah

Now for the funny stories.... well at least I think they are kind of funny.. maybe not-- okay probably not, but thought I would give it a shot :)

1) I led all of the sisters in my district in "work outs" the past couple of days.... I guess they saw me doing pushups and wanted in on the squats. Kind of funny to see a bunch of girls who don’t work out a lot and then me trying to tell them what to do.

2) I always get ice from the cafeteria in my water bottle. I LOVE IT! and then I take it to class and drink water for a few hours and the chew what ever ice I have left. I try to wait until the ice is small and mostly suck on it, but sometimes I forget and just chew it. Some of the Elders have expressed jealousy in my ice supply. Little do they know that they could be doing the same thing, if they just remembered a waterbottle.

3) Max Jensen was in my ward at BYU and I see him EVERYWHERE.. literally. I seriously see him at least five times a day. Sometimes we pretend to get really excited to see each other just for fun. I will try to get a picture with him so you can see who he is, cause chances are I will run into him again!!

4) I have worn pink almost everyday. I did not realize I brought this much pink on my mission. I got dressed in a blue shirt and a cream skirt and the girls in my district were like "Sister Mumford! You aren't wearing pink today!!" It was kind of weird... so I put on a pink watch.

5) We shorted out the power on our floor because we all blew dry our hair in our room at once... it didn’t come back on for five more hours..........

6) As a district we played volleyball on the sand courts one day during gym time. We all played on teams opposite of our companions. My team was the Lamanites and the other team was the Nephites. My team, of course, won.

      Selfie with the name tag upon Nathans request. 

I have run into A TON of friends here at BYU. I counted 16 people that I bumped into this week. Hopefully I can get pictures with a few more before I leave. Anyways, I love you all. Thank you for the Dear Elders. My entire district has been jealous that I get mail almost every day! Patten family- Thank you for the sweet package!!!! The dried fruit is all so delicious! Thank you for thinking of me :) I hope my e-mail wasn't too boring!! Sorry if it was! I will try to figure out pictures in the time I have left on the computer! So hopefully maybe pictures and if not hopefully next week!!

Love,

Sarah